Checkers Brasserie

Hello (: Today's one of those days when I feel extremely exhausted but also mildly soothed because of a great day at school (: As I've told some people, the kids can really make or break your day and I'd like to thank the people who made me smile today (: Thank you. Since I'm feeking too sleepy to continue with work, let me share a little gem of a restaurant with you: Checkers Brasserie at Hilton Hotel. Jeffrey and I went there a couple of weeks ago not expecting their buffet to be good since it was one of the restaurants that weren't fully booked on a Saturday afternoon but boy were we wrong! The first thing that struck me was that the flooring of the place matches their name! =) How thematically consistent!

We went there for a late lunch so the other diners had tucked in long ago (judging by the plates and the items on their plates) by the time we arrived. We were seated right in front of the dessert section, which I thought was fate at work because I'm such a dessert monster!

If you're healthy like Jeffrey and love starting your meal with plain green veggies, you may choose to pile up your plate with a clump of lettuce leaves like this:

or you can make a palette out of your colourful vegetables! Surprisingly, there was a wide range of 'little bites' such as (from left to right in a clockwise direction: gluttinous rice, deep fried croquette (yum), deep fried wantons, chicken covered in leaves and steamed crystal ball (yum).

There was also a Japanese section (as you can tell from the sushis above) and a mixed salad bar where you can get dishes like smoked salmon, pasta salad, greek salad etc.

For Asian food lovers, you must be pleased to find out that there are satays (background of photo) and some interesting Asian-fusion dishes on offer as well! One popular dish was the fish fillet covered with tomato shreds and gravy. It wasn't groundbreakingly fantastic but it was definitely above average.

Just in case you, like me, need some real carbo to feel full, there's fried rice! It wasn't very fragrant but it was definitely okay. There are cooked vegetables (mixed broccoli and cauliflower) and other kinds of meat available as well. More fried rice, satay, beef and chicken.

Western food lovers won't feel left out but they'll definitely not enjoy themselves since the selection of 'western' food is quite small: quiche (yum) and pizza. The good thing about these dishes is that they're always warm so you tend to yearn for them especially if you're craving for something western and warm!

My mini bowl of laksa! (: It was pretty okay except that I think I added a bit too much laksa leaves so it tasted a tad too weedy. For the first time, we made ourselves a pot of English Breakfast Tea and got ourselves a strainer to drink tea the 'proper' way! =) I was mighty pleased with this pot of tea because I added quite a substantial amount of tea leaves so the tea taste was very strong!

Scones with marmalade and cream! The scones were slightly biscuity so I didn't appreciate it a lot but since it was so small, I ate it up anyway!

The beginning of my dessert rampage (from left, in clockwise direction): mango sponge cake, green tea mouse and cake (yum!), bread and butter pudding (okay, acceptable), hazelnut cake. Clockwise from left: petite carrot cake (yum), chocolate brownie (yumyum), openfaced macaroon (not bad), a piece of fruit, chocolate cake (yumyum).

New York Cheese Cake (exceptionally good!) and more chocolate cake (sinfully good!)

From left, in clockwise direction: cheesecake ball (tastes weird), tiramisu (yum!), pear tart, raspberry cheesecake (not that fantastic).

Before I end off, I'd like to say that Hilton has the BEST chocolate desserts that I've ever tasted! Seriously, I don't know how they manage to do it but ALL the chocolate desserts that I had that day were at least a notch above the better chocolate desserts that I have had in terms of quality. You must try Hilton's chocolate desserts if and when you go for this relatively affordable, $37++/ pax weekend lunch!

Alright that's all for now (: Have a good rest of the week! Will update when I can! Goodnight! (: